As Canada is slowly dragged towards one of the worst trade wars we have ever known, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer spent part of his weekend reassuring Canadian dairy farmers that they had his support.

Spoke with the media in Saguenay today and reaffirmed the @CPC_HQ commitment to Canada's supply management system and support for dairy farmers. (1/2)

Under Canada’s “supply management” system, Canada’s eggs and dairy producers are shielded from competition by exorbitant tariffs and state-sanctioned cartels. In other words, it’s an awkward policy for Scheer to support while simultaneously beating a drum about free trade.

Below, a short list of all the reasons why, if you feel like calling the Tories hypocrites, look no further than the nearest carton of milk.

It stifles consumer choice Supply management works two ways. First, it permits dairy farmers to band together into cartels to artificially limit production and drive up the price (something that is illegal if done by any other industry). Then, to protect those high prices, the federal government slaps strict controls on imports of foreign-made dairy. As a result, Canadian specialty stores are constantly short of gouda, mascarpone and a galaxy of other dairy products. Do a search for the words “consumer choice” in the House of Commons, and you’ll find that the term is used most often by Tories. “Consumer choice should be the role of the market and not the role of government,” Saskatchewan Conservative MP Kelly Block said just last year during a speech opposing mandatory labelling of GMO food. “Our government’s policy will always be to encourage competition, increase consumer choice and minimize regulation,” said Christian Paradis, the then-Secretary of State for Agriculture, in a 2011 speech against usage-based internet billing. Naturally, Paradis wasn’t quite as libertarian when it came to milk.

It endorses a de facto command economy In general, Western conservatism has spent the last 50 years in strict opposition to the idea that economies should be unilaterally controlled by central committees. After all, that’s what communists do: Every year, the Soviet Union would set targets for its various state industries, and everyone from goat farmers to shoe factories would get their orders on how much to produce. The system is called a “command economy,” and it’s a term that Conservatives normally use to mock the NDP. “NDP members want a command economy that is completely out of step with the modern world,” then-Minister of Indian Affairs John Duncan said in 2010 while responding to NDP calls for greater state control of the Canadian petroleum industry. But the Conservatives still support Canadian dairy existing in a world where committees draw up strict, to-the-litre annual production quotas. There are no “bumper crops” in Canadian dairy: Any excess is simply flushed into the sewer in order to create artificial scarcity and keep prices high.

It’s directly in opposition to free trade It’s probably safe to assume that if someone hadn’t told Donald Trump about supply management, he would have found some other excuse to long been irritated by Canadian supply management. It was a serious roadblock in the negotiation of the Trans Pacific Partnership and an EU free trade deal. In addition, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan has called Canadian supply management the chief flaw with NAFTA. Conservatives love free trade, of course. One of the signature boasts of the Conservatives under Stephen Harper was that they inked free trade deals with more than two dozen countries. However, it’s debatable whether those agreements are truly “free” when they all had to be specially tailored to work around Canada’s 11,000 or so dairy farmers.

Fair Trade is now to be called Fool Trade if it is not Reciprocal. According to a Canada release, they make almost 100 Billion Dollars in Trade with U.S. (guess they were bragging and got caught!). Minimum is 17B. Tax Dairy from us at 270%. Then Justin acts hurt when called out!

It’s backdoor corporate welfare “Corporate welfare costs Cdns billions. It distorts the market, picks winners and losers, and in the long run is more damaging to the economy,” Andrew Scheer wrote in February, 2017. Replace “corporate welfare” with “supply management,” and that entire sentence would continue to make perfect sense. Reports have found that dairy controls are indeed costing Canadian consumers billions, and it’s hard to argue that the government isn’t picking “winners” when literally every other Canadian agricultural sector is expected to compete on the world market. The costs imposed by supply management are particularly egregious since they disproportionately accrue to Canadians in lower income brackets. One estimate by the Montreal Economic Institute holds that Canadian dairy premiums are just enough to drive tens of thousands of extra Canadians below the poverty line. Conservatives usually cast themselves as defenders of the poor when it comes to other government-imposed rises in cost-of-living, but they are eerily silent when it comes to Canada’s regime of pricier milk and cheese. It was just yesterday, in fact, that Scheer was complaining that “life keeps getting more expensive” under the Liberals’ carbon tax.

It’s anti-competitive Conservatives love competition. “I believe competition is good, a variety of different grain companies competing for farmers’ products can only be of benefit to producers,” Andrew Scheer said in a 2017 interview with the Western Canadian Wheat Growers. In that same interview, he also proclaimed himself a foe of agricultural tariffs and said wheat farmers could only be made richer by more “market access.” When it comes to the wheat growers’ dairy farm neighbour, however, Scheer suddenly believes that “market access” is an existential threat to their way of life. As a good indicator that this isn’t the most conservative viewpoint, it’s worth noting that some of the strongest opposition to supply management has come from within Scheer’s own party. Maxine Bernier, a vocal opponent of supply management, narrowly lost the race for Conservative leader, ultimately blaming his defeat on dairy lobby skullduggery. And former minister of finance Joe Oliver was only a few months removed from his 2015 election loss when he wrote a detailed takedown of supply management in these pages. “The Dairy Farmers of Canada and the Union des Producteurs Agricoles bring to mind the U.S. gun lobby with their uncompromising stand on the issue,” he wrote.

Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has released its last budget before the fall federal election

This Week's Flyers

Comments

Postmedia is pleased to bring you a new commenting experience. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. Visit our community guidelines for more information.